One of the key challenges in the communications industry today is how to provide a cost effective, broadband solution for getting multiple services, such as telephony, video, and high speed data, to users in such diverse premises as homes and business buildings. The existing telephone service, sometimes known as plain old telephone service (POTS), even with advance solutions such as digital subscriber loop (DSL) technologies, may suffice for some telephony and data requirements, but is bandwidth constrained and inadequate for video provisioning. Cable television (CATV) systems do provide a broadband solution for delivering digital and video data, but the reliance on coaxial cable for the final distribution to homes and other premises remains a bandwidth limited solution. Thus, because of the superior bandwidth of fiber optic solutions, a variety of systems have been proposed to provide fiber to the home/business (FTTH/B) as the best overall solution for broadband services.
The leading FTTH/B solutions rely on passive optical networks (PONs), in which the optical network is terminated at the premises in some form of optical network terminator (ONTs). However, two key problems are present in today's solutions for coupling the optical networks, via the ONTs, to the local premises network. These existing solutions typically involve some form of customized cabling for linking the two networks. This happens because there are several different types of cabling found in premises today. A need also exists for a new power cable to be run to the ONT from the premises power supply. However, this approach is both cost prohibitive and time consuming. Not only does it drive up the installation time, but the power cabling may also require specialized installation services such as those of a registered electrician. Using different parts for different premises also drives up parts costs, and increases the risk of a mistake being made when configuring the equipment during the installation process.
Thus, there remains a need for a more standardized, cost effective, and efficient solution for coupling broadband optical and local premises networks, and providing power to the network terminating devices. Just such a solution to these and other problems noted above, is made possible by my invention.